Official Jessica Watson Blog

Last year it was a single party popper way down in the Southern Ocean. This year I saw the New Year in overlooking Brisbane with friends, watching the fireworks from the rooftop, counting in 2011 with the rest of the city. Well not quite. Kind of embarrassingly, our timing was a good 20 seconds early, so we did the big 3… 2… 1, only to then hear the rest of the neighborhood still counting 23, 22, 21...! Still, it was a good night and chance to reflect on the year before ploughing head long into another exciting one.

Since the New Year particularly, but also over the last few months, I’ve been getting out sailing and training a lot with Scott Cavanough on is yacht Skippy, which is a Mini 650. You might remember me talking about Mini’s back when I was in France last year. Mini’s are 6.5 metre, pretty radical (and very cute!) boats designed to race solo across the Atlantic Ocean in a race called the Mini Transat. I’m going to be sailing with Scott shorthanded (two up) in a race in France later this year, so we’ve been getting as much time on the water as possible in preparation. I’ve been learning lots every time we go out, which is great because I’ve still got an incredible amount to learn about performance sailing. My local paper did a lovely article on it with some great pictures, it’s well worth checking out;           

http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2011/01/07/jessica-watsons-new-challenge-sunshine-coast/   

And talking of news stories, you may have heard the recent rumours that Wyatt Roy and myself are ‘going out’. Well, Wyatt is in fact a family friend (like many girls, I do have male friends!) and I think some media outlets might just be getting a little ahead of themselves on this one. Of course, I’m incredibly grateful for all the wonderful media support I’ve received, but sometimes, not all the media reports are correct. 

And of course the other big and far more serious thing that’s been happening is the terrible flooding across my home state of Queensland. Over the last few weeks we’ve been hearing the reports from the flooded areas and thinking of all those affected, but it’s only been in the last few days that the Sunshine Coast has started feeling the impact first hand.

Luckily our house is on a hill but Mum and Dad are having a bit of a hard time of it. They very unluckily picked last weekend to take my little sister and a bunch of her friends camping and since then, they haven’t been able to return due to roads being cut off. They’re in no danger, but I know if it was me, I wouldn’t be too thrilled about being flooded in with a bunch of restless 13 years on dwindling food supplies!

Seriously though, my thoughts are with all those more seriously affected as it really is a disaster zone in several areas now. For anyone looking for a way to show their support, I found the QLD Premier's Flood Relief Appeal link which is: http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html  

This is an easy way to make a small contribution to what’s going to be a mammoth cleanup effort, so please try and support this very important appeal!  

Jess